Isaiah 27:12

But when Israel repents, the mercy of Jehovah will change all this. "And it will come to pass on that day, Jehovah will appoint a beating of corn from the water-flood of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and ye will be gathered together one by one, O sons of Israel. And it will come to pass in that day, a great trumpet will be blown, and the lost ones in the land of Asshur come, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and cast themselves down before Jehovah on the holy mountain in Jerusalem." I regard every exposition of Isa 27:12 which supposes it to refer to the return of the captives as altogether false. The Euphrates and the brook of Egypt, i.e., the Wady el-Arish, were the north-eastern and south-western boundaries of the land of Israel, according to the original promise (Gen 15:18; Kg1 8:65), and it is not stated that Jehovah will beat on the outside of these boundaries, but within them. Hence Gesenius is upon a more correct track, when he explains it as meaning that "the kingdom will be peopled again in its greatest promised extent, and that as rapidly and numerously as if men had fallen like olives from the trees." No doubt the word châbat is applied to the beating down of olives in Deu 24:20; but this figure is inapplicable here, as olives must already exist before they can be knocked down, whereas the land of Israel is to be thought of as desolate. What one expects is, that Jehovah will cause the dead to live within the whole of the broad expanse of the promised land (according to the promise in Isa 26:19, Isa 26:21). And the figure answers this expectation most clearly and most gloriously. Châbat as the word commonly applied to the knocking out of fruits with husks, which were too tender and valuable to be threshed. Such fruits, as the prophet himself aff…

In this chapter the prophet goes on to show, I. What great things God would do for his church and people, which should now shortly be accomplished in the deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib and the destruction of the Assyrian army; but it is expressed generally, for the encouragement of the church in after ages, with reference to the power and prevalency of her enemies. 1. That proud oppressors should be reckoned with (Isa 27:1). 2. That care should be taken of the church, as of God's vineyard (Isa 27:2, Isa 27:3). 3. That God would let fall his controversy with the people, upon their return to him (Isa 27:4, Isa 27:5). 4. That he would greatly multiply and increase them (Isa 27:6). 5. That, as to their afflictions, the property of them should be altered (Isa 27:7), they should be mitigated and moderated (Isa 27:8), and sanctified (Isa 27:9). 6. That though the church might be laid waste, and made desolate, for a time (Isa 27:10, Isa 27:11), yet it should be restored, and the scattered members should be gathered together again (Isa 27:12, Isa 27:13). All this is applicable to the grace of the gospel, and God's promises to, and providences concerning, the Christian church, and such as belong to it.

27:12 Yet: God’s withholding of mercy from Israel (27:11) will be temporary. • from the Euphrates River . . . to the Brook of Egypt: God’s remnant will return from Assyria and Egypt to the territory that God promised to Abraham (Gen 15:18; see 1 Kgs 4:21).